Building exterior wall cleaning apparatus

ABSTRACT

A building exterior wall cleaning apparatus includes a housing being provided on a top with a set of external hoisting hangers, at a front side with a spray unit, and at a rear side with at least one gas producer; at least one cleaning unit being rotatably mounted to a front side of the housing next to the spray unit; and a driving unit being mounted in the housing and connected to the at least one cleaning unit. The at least one cleaning unit may be tightly pressed against a building exterior wall by airflow produced by the gas producer and to clean the building exterior wall in one stroke of the cleaning unit, so as to enable safe, efficient, automated and unmanned building exterior wall cleaning operation.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a building exterior wall cleaning apparatus, and more particularly to a cleaning apparatus that enables safe, efficient, automated, and unmanned building exterior wall cleaning operation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The cleaning of building exterior walls is usually manually performed by cleaning crew in a gondola suspended by a crane from a top of the building. Such building exterior wall cleaning operation is inefficient and risky, and requires high cost because the cleaning crew has to clean the building exterior walls in the dangerously suspended gondola.

There are cleaning machines developed for cleaning building exterior walls to overcome the problems in the manually performed building exterior wall cleaning operation. Normally, such cleaning machines must apply a predetermined pressure toward the building exterior wall for the cleaning heads thereof to clean the building exterior wall. Currently, vacuum suction and magnetic attraction are the most frequently used ways for pressing the cleaning heads against the building exterior wall. However, in the case of vacuum suction, the building exterior wall must be flat and highly smooth. Any roughness on the building exterior wall would hinder the use of the vacuum suction. Moreover, the cleaning machine using the vacuum suction involves in somewhat complicate moving mechanism and high manufacturing cost. On the other hand, in the case of magnetic attraction, it is only applicable to building exterior walls being internally provided with steel bars. The cleaning machine using the magnetic attraction is just useless when a building exterior wall does not internally include steel bars.

Therefore, it is tried by the inventor to develop an improved building exterior wall cleaning apparatus to overcome the problems encountered in the conventional building exterior wall cleaning operation performed by man power or the cleaning machines of prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A primary object of the present invention is to provide a building exterior wall cleaning apparatus having cleaning units that could be tightly pressed against various types of building exterior wall to clean the same in one stroke of the cleaning units, so as to achieve safe, efficient, automated and unmanned building exterior wall cleaning operation.

To achieve the above and other objects, the building exterior wall cleaning apparatus according to the present invention includes a housing being provided on a top with a set of hoisting hangers, at a front side with a spray unit, and at a rear side with at least one gas producer; at least one cleaning unit being rotatably mounted to a front side of the housing next to the spray unit; and a driving unit being mounted in the housing and connected to the at least one cleaning unit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein

FIG. 1 is a partially exploded perspective view of a building exterior wall cleaning apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an assembled view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectioned side view of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 shows the building exterior wall cleaning apparatus of the present invention in use.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to FIGS. 1 and 2 that are partially exploded and assembled perspective views, respectively, of a building exterior wall cleaning apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and to FIG. 3 that is a sectioned side view of FIG. 2.

The building exterior wall cleaning apparatus of the present invention includes a housing 1, at least one cleaning unit 2, such as a roller brush, and a driving unit 3. In the illustrated embodiment, there are two cleaning units 2.

The housing 1 includes a frame 11; a top panel 12, two side panels 13, and a back panel 14 mounted to a top, two lateral sides, and a back of the frame 11, respectively; a stopper 15 connected to a front edge of each of the two side panels 13; a set of hoisting hangers 16 connected at a lower end to the top panel 12 of the housing 1; a spray unit 17 located at a front side of the housing 1 at a predetermined position; at least one gas producer 18 mounted to a lower rear side in the housing 1; and an assistance unit 19 mounted to an upper front side of the housing 1. The assistance unit 19 includes at least one lamp 191 and an image acquisition lens 192.

The two cleaning units 2 are rotatably mounted to a front side of the housing 1 to separately locate next to and at two opposite sides of the spray unit 17. Each of the cleaning units 2 includes a rotary core 21 and a bristle portion 22 located around the rotary core 21.

The driving unit 3 is mounted in the housing 1, and includes at least an actuating element 31, a first transmission element 32, a rotational shaft 33 distantly connected to the actuating element 31 via the first transmission element 32, and a second transmission element 34 interconnecting the rotational shaft 33 and the rotary cores 21 of the two cleaning units 2.

Please refer to FIG. 4. The building exterior wall cleaning apparatus of the present invention may be used with any existing type of hoister 4 and connected at the hangers 16 to a hoisting rope 41 of the hoister 4, so that the whole building exterior wall cleaning apparatus could be controlled via the hoister 4 to move upward and downward. To use the building exterior wall cleaning apparatus of the present invention to clean a building exterior wall 5, first start the actuating element 31 of the driving unit 3 to rotate a shaft thereof. At this point, the first transmission element 32, the rotational shaft 33, and the second transmission element 34 are caused to rotate at the same time, bringing the rotary cores 21 and accordingly, the bristle portions 22 of the cleaning units 2 to rotate synchronously. While the cleaning units 2 rotate, the spray unit 17 is actuated to output required working fluid, such as detergent, clean water, etc., toward the building exterior wall 5, as can be seen from FIG. 2. The two stoppers 15 located at the front edges of the two side panels 13 prevent splashes made by the sprayed working fluid and rotating bristle portions 22 during cleaning operation from flying in all directions. With these arrangements, the cleaning units 2 at two sides of the spray unit 17 may clean the building exterior wall 5 in one stroke thereof, no matter what type the building exterior wall is.

During the cleaning operation, depending on different factors, such as the height of the building, the contour or the material of the building exterior wall 5, etc., the gas producer 18 may be used to jet air inward to form a strong airflow. According to the law of conservation of momentum, the strong airflow so formed will push the housing 1 toward the building exterior wall 5, so that the cleaning units 2 are firmly pressed against the building exterior wall 5 by the reverse airflow of the gas producer 18 for the bristle portions 22 to tightly bear against and effectively clean the building exterior wall 5.

During the cleaning operation by the cleaning units 2, the lamps 191 and the image acquisition lens 192 of the assistance unit 19 may be actuated to provide necessary lighting and acquire images of the cleaning operation, respectively, so that the building exterior wall cleaning apparatus of the present invention is more practical for use.

The building exterior wall cleaning apparatus of the present invention is superior to and improves the prior art because the cleaning units 2 may be tightly pressed against any type of building exterior wall 5 to effectively clean the same in one stroke of the cleaning units 2, so as to achieve safe, efficient, automated, and unmanned building exterior wall cleaning operation. 

1. A building exterior wall cleaning apparatus, comprising: a housing being provided on a top with a set of external hoisting hangers, at a front side with a spray unit, and at a rear side with at least one gas producer; at least one cleaning unit being rotatably mounted to the front side of the housing next to the spray unit; and a driving unit being mounted in the housing and connected to the at least one cleaning unit.
 2. The building exterior wall cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the housing includes a frame; a top panel, two side panels, and a back panel externally mounted to the frame; and two stoppers separately mounted to front edges of the two side panels.
 3. The building exterior wall cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the housing is provided at an upper front side with an assistance unit; and the assistance unit including at least one lamp and an image acquisition lens.
 4. The building exterior wall cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one cleaning unit includes a rotary core rotatably connected to the driving unit, and a bristle portion externally located around the rotary core.
 5. The building exterior wall cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the driving unit includes at least an actuating element, a first transmission element, a rotational shaft connected to the actuating element via the first transmission element, and a second transmission element interconnecting the rotational shaft and the rotary core of the at least one cleaning unit.
 6. The building exterior wall cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cleaning unit is a roller brush. 